JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING KNOWLEDGE
Year:2022 | Volume:13 | Issue:1 (48)|Papers Count:10

Objective: In order to fulfill their mission in lack of resources and increasing needs, university management should improve their decisions not only by considering optimization of performance indicators, but also by considering the effect of their decisions on cost of services. This requires using tools such as activity-based costing to provide accurate information about the cost of services. However, in this approach, the dynamic relationships and the variability of cost and activities over time are not considered. Dynamic modeling provide an efficient tool for studying and testing the impact of possible changes on real systems in a virtual environment. Therefore, the aim of this study is to gain a better understanding of dynamic behavior of cost over time and under different conditions using dynamic modeling. Method: Due to the multiplicity of activities, cost and cost drivers in universities, and due to the dynamics of cost drivers over time and the complexity of depicting the relationships between multiple costs and activities in university as a dynamic system, in this research, the system dynamics approach has been used for modeling activity based costing. This research is a case study based on financial and operational data of Al-Zahra University. The main services and activities of the university are determined based on the classification of the university's programs and activities in Table (1) of Appendix (4) of the annual budget rules. Observing, interviewing, and reviewing the structure of the university's activities were used to identify activity drivers, cost drivers, support activities, and relationships between costs and activities. Results: One of the initial findings is the cost of the main services, which the validation results show the high accuracy of the model (mean difference of 0/03 percent). Then, the cost of the main services was examined under the two scenarios of reducing the number of undergraduate students and increasing the number of professors, in order to achieve the desired ratio of students to professors and strengthen the population of Master and PhD students. Comparing the results enable management make better decisions based on available resources. Findings also show that this model also eliminates the complexity and cost of updating activity-based costing system and also provide the possibility of timely cost analysis by modeling the causal relationships between all variables and taking into account the dynamic nature of the variables. Applying this approach also makes it possible to predict the cost of services for several future periods. Conclusion: Dynamic modeling of the university cost management system allows managers to examine the cost of services in a virtual environment, under different policies regarding faculty recruitment, student admission, and etc., which may have a positive effect on receiving desired goals and make decisions based on forecast of the cost of services and activities and available resources.

Objective: emotional intelligence as the ability to recognize, reach and evoke feelings in order to assist thought, to understand the feelings and its meaning, and a sense of control in a manner that fosters intellectual emotion. Emotion does not interfere with intelligent thinking and behavior, also helps a person in many things, including decision making. The role of emotional intelligence in various aspects of individual and social life, judgment and decision-making, made this structure as a topic of interest for researchers. Emotion is a type of information that people use to interact with their surroundings. Recent accounting studies highlight the importance of emotional intelligence on accountants’ job performance related to decision‐ making, teamwork, and client relations. Emotional intelligence that leads to the ability to understand and manage the feelings of themselves and others and helps to make better decisions in difficult situations. Ethical leadership as a demonstration of normative appropriate behavior through conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers. That these behaviors result in subordinates being more likely to trust the leader and believe the leader is acting in their best interest; as a result, subordinates are more willing to follow the leader’ s direction. One of the worst problems facing society today is the continued separation of business and ethics. especially since growing unethical business practices have a profound impact on individuals and society as a whole. One way of drawing attention to wrongdoings in business is through whistleblowing. Whistleblowing is the disclosure by organization members of illegal, immoral or illegitimate practices under the control of their employers, to persons or organizations that may be able to effect action. Whistleblowing Intention auditors as a mechanism to prevent and detect unethical behaviors and wrongdoing in the audit profession. Methods: The statistical population of the study includes independent auditors working in private and public sector audit firms in 2020. In structural equations, at least 200 samples are proposed and according to Cochran's formula in an unlimited community, 385 samples are required. Based on this, 500 questionnaires were sent in paper and electronic and 441 of them were collected and reviewed. In this study, Taylor and Curtis questionnaire was used for whistleblowing variable, Kalshon et al. Questionnaire was used for ethical leadership variable and Schering’ s Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire was used for emotional intelligence variable. Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability were used for the reliability of the questionnaire. Its validity with convergent and divergent validity has been investigated and confirmed using the average variance extracted (AVE) and Fornell and Larker matrices. Data were collected through a questionnaire and analyzed using structural equations using LISREL software. Results: In order to evaluate the conceptual model of the research and also to ensure the existence or non-existence of a causal relationship between the research variables and to examine the appropriateness of the observed data with the conceptual model of the research, the research hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. The first hypothesis examines the relationship between ethical leadership and auditors' whistleblowing intention, second hypothesis examines the relationship between ethical leadership and auditors' emotional intelligence and third hypothesis is to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence and auditors' whistleblowing intention. The results of this study show that ethical leadership has a direct positive and significant effect on auditors' intention to whistleblowing and this relationship is also significant and strengthened due to emotional intelligence. Thus, emotional intelligence is a good mediator for the relationship between ethical leadership and the intention to whistleblowing auditors. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, heed the principles of ethical leadership and paying attention to ethical values in employee relations in auditing firms, increase the intention to whistleblowing auditors. On the other hand, it can be said that ethical leadership in auditing firms leads to strengthening and paying attention to employees' emotional abilities and increasing their emotional intelligence. Also, based on these results, auditors with high emotional intelligence due to knowing their feelings and emotions and those of others, can manage their emotions in the complex situation of observing misconduct by colleagues and therefore are more inclined to whistleblowing. The present study can lead to more attention to the issue of whistleblowing, ethical behavior of managers, management and perception of employees' emotions and reduce misconduct in the auditing profession in Iran.

Objective: The main purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between professional skepticism and client-specific experience in the auditor's judgment. This study examines the auditor's judgment in several stages of the decision-making process to determine the relationship between each stage. If different levels of auditor professional skepticism (more or less professional skepticism) and client-specific experience (positive, negative, and no experience) affect audit judgments. Prior experience of the client could be due to a positive experience related to the positive characteristics of the client; also it could be a negative experience of the client so that the auditor has a negative view of the client. If the auditor has a negative experience with the client, they may consider the client to be unreliable and this experience may be effective in the auditor's judgment. Method: The present study tries to evaluate the effect of independent variables (professional skepticism and client-specific experience) on the dependent variable (auditor judgment) using the experimental method of 2×3. The population of the study is people working in auditing firms including Assistant Auditor, Auditor, senior auditors, and Supervisor so the data sample of this paper is 155 auditors who were selected by random sampling method. In this study, an experimental method was applied to measure the professional skepticism, previous client-specific experience, and the extent of their professional judgment. The research method consists of three parts. The first part is the Hurt model (2010) to measure professional skepticism (including 30 questions). After that, individuals are classified into two categories with high professional skepticism and low professional skepticism. The second part is related to the previous client specific, which provides information about the hypothetical client. Here, the sample auditor is divided into three groups, then the first group is given a positive experience, the second group is given a negative experience about the client and the third group as a control group is provided with no information about the client. In this section, people are manipulated based on the positive and negative experiences of the client to evaluate the auditor's judgment. Finding: In the same situation, People make different judgments and decisions based on their level of professional skepticism. The previous client-specific experience as another variable could affect the level of the auditor's skepticism, judgments, and decisions. In the present study, three indicators of positive experience, negative experience, and control group are used to measure the cognition of the client, and the variable of fraud/error expectations is applied to measure the auditor's judgment. The results of this study showed that the auditor's decisions and judgments are affected by both the level of skepticism of his profession and the previous client experience. According to the first hypothesis, auditors who have a negative experience with the client are more likely to identify the error as fraud. Compared to auditors with a positive experience of the client. More specifically, a negative experience of the client causes the auditor to find the trustee less trustworthy, which is effective in determining the expectation of fraud/error and ultimately causes the auditor to be more likely to have made the error probably due to fraud rather than an error. The second hypothesis did not confirm that the level of proffesional skepticism of the affects the auditor's judgment and decisions. This finding approves states that the auditor should neither accept the management's claims nor be distrustful of the management's claims and consider the management to be inaccurate. The third hypothesis also states that the difference in auditor's judgment affected by previous experiences was significant for auditors with a low level of professional skepticism (low skepticism). In other words, the previous experience of a client has a greater impact on optimistic people (low-level skepticism versus high-level skepticism). When a person is less skeptical, he is expected to trust people more, so these people are more likely to trust the client's statements when they have a positive experience with the client. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the decisions and judgments of the auditor are affected by both the level of skepticism and the client-specific experience. Auditors with low levels of trait skepticism have more trust in the public. Enhancing professional skepticism can be a way to prevent behavioral biases. Therefore, one method of prevent these behavioral biases is to educate and improve the experience of auditors to increase the level of professional skepticism. if auditors are trained, they can be aware of judgment processes and behavioral biases, which can help enhance their level of professional skepticism. The auditor should be aware that despite the confidence in their judgment, there are specific aspects, errors, and biases that can affect the auditor's performance. The findings stated that what the auditor needs to be trained in, is that they need to learn from their previous mistakes and understand why these errors occurred. Because they may understand their role in bias and its impact on the audit process and avoid future mistakes.

Objective: Information asymmetry between managers and financial institutions, the agency problem and conflict of interest between managers and shareholders, has significantly affected investment decisions. Liquidity, investment opportunities, and financial constraints influence optimal investment decisions and play an important role in improving and promoting them. Due to the existing constraints, companies have to be more sensitive to investment and emphasize cash flow when making investment decisions. In this study, we examine the effect of liquidity sensitivity and investment opportunity on investment decisions between companies with and without financial constraints. Restriction on financing is one of the factors affecting the sensitivity of investment cash flows, which causes the entity to lack resources and is an obstacle to financing all desirable investments. companies without Restriction make easy decisions about how to invest and are less sensitive to external resources. But financially constraints companies do not seem attractive because they do not have enough credit for lending institutions. Therefore, they have to be more sensitive to investment and emphasize cash flow during making decisions. Method: We define companies without financial constraints and with financial constraints by using a new and different approach, through dividend policy, cash flow, investment opportunity and debt (leverage), in four stages. In the first stage, companies with low dividends are classified as companies with financial constraints and companies with high dividends are nonfinancial constraints. In the second stage, companies that have higher cash flows than the average sample are divided into companies with nonfinancial constraints and companies with lower cash flows, as companies with financial constraints. In the next step, companies with financial constraints are examined in terms of investment opportunities using the book value criterion to the market. If the book-to-market ratio is less than the average of the sample, they fall into the category of nonfinancial constraint, and if it is above the average, the company has the financial constraint. Finally, companies with low debt ratios are classified as nonfinancial constraints and other with high debt ratios in groups with financial constraints. Therefore, if companies pay dividends, have high cash flow, book to market ratio and low debt, they are classified as nonfinancial constraints, and if they do not pay dividends, low cash flow, book to market ratio and high debt, are classified as financially constrained. The statistical sample in this research includes companies that are members of the Tehran Stock Exchange from 2012 to 2019. By using the limitations of the study, 189 companies were surveyed, which includes a total of 1, 512 observations. Multivariate regression has been used to investigate the effect of liquidity and investment opportunity with the moderating role of financial constraints on investment. The independent variables of this research are liquidity and investment opportunity. Liquidity is calculated through the company's cash flows and investment opportunity is calculated through the book value to the market. It is also an investment dependent variable that is obtained through net capital expenditures through the difference in fixed assets in year t minus fixed assets in last year. Variables are divided into fixed assets to control the different effects of the firm scale. The moderator variable is financial constraint, which is divided into two parts, companies with financial constraints and nonfinancial constraints. Results: The positive impact of liquidity and investment opportunities on investment decisions reflects the interdependence between financing and investment decisions. On the other hand, if there is a profitable investment opportunity, the manager tries to use it to maximize the wealth of shareholders, which leads to an increase in the value of the company. Therefore, a more profitable investment opportunity will lead to more investment. The greater impact of liquidity on the investment decisions of companies with financial constraints compared to companies without financial constraints is due to the lack of information asymmetry for external financing. Thus, external financing is a more expensive debt than internal, which allows companies with less financial constraints to access external sources of financing. Therefore, investment decisions for companies with financial constraints are more sensitive to liquidity. The greater impact of investment opportunities on the investment decisions of companies without financial constraints compared to companies with financial constraints is that prior have easier access to external capital markets. Therefore, they easily adapt financing sources to investments and have more financial flexibility. As a result, companies with financial constraints are more sensitive to investment opportunities in their investment decisions. Conclusion: Liquidity and investment opportunity have a positive effect on investment decision which is adjusted by financial constraints. The decision to invest in companies with financial constraints is more sensitive to liquidity than companies without financial constraints, and this is the opposite of the investment opportunity. Resource constraints and liquidity sensitivity affect corporate investment. Liquidity and investment decisions are interrelated, which are moderated by financial constraints. In this study, it was observed that liquidity and investment opportunities have a positive effect on investment decisions; therefore, there is a correlation between financing and investment decisions. On the other hand, if there is a profitable investment opportunity, the manager tries to use it to maximize the wealth of shareholders, which leads to an increase in the value of the company; Therefore, a more profitable investment opportunity will lead to more investment. In addition, liquidity has a greater impact on the investment decisions of companies with financial constraints than nonfinancial constraints companies. This event is due to information asymmetry for external financing; Thus, external financing is a more expensive debt than internal financing, which allows companies with less financial constraints to access external sources of financing. Investment decisions are more sensitive to liquidity for companies with financial constraints. Finally, investment opportunities have a greater impact on the investment decisions of companies nonfinancial constraints than companies with financial constraints. This is because companies without financial constraints have easier access to external capital markets; therefore, they easily adapt financing sources to investments and have more financial flexibility. As a result, companies with nonfinancial constraints are more sensitive to investment opportunities in their investment decisions.

Objective: Audit pricing is one of the most critical issues for practitioners and regulators. In Iran, the report of Admission and Supervision Committee of the Trusted Audit Firms of Securities and Exchange Organization in 2009 raised serious concerns about the low audit fees to carry out audit services. "In spite of the actions taken by Iranian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (IACPA), competition to keep engagement with the client firms sometimes leads to fee discounting by the auditors, has raised a confusing problem with certain detrimental effects. " However, audit fee studies in Iran are only the replication of foreign research about audit fees. In addition, empirical research of audit fees in Iran suffers from several methodological issues, including omitted correlated variable bias, overlooked environmental circumstances and endogenity issues raised from sample selection bias. This paper attempts to solve these problems and tests the potential role of several environmental variables, such as determining audit fees before starting audit project. In addition, another driver to study this issue is developing the audit fee model for Iranian context as a significant issue for researchers, practitioners and regulators. Hypotheses: Eierle et al. (2021) as the latest review study about the factors influencing the audit fee show the importance of examining the external environment in forming a comprehensive picture of the audit fee framework and understanding global and regional differences. Accordingly, this paper examined the role of two specific variables in the Iranian environment in determining the audit fee and the role of a variable that less attention has been paid to it. In Iran, the audit contract is signed with a determined fee prior to starting the audit project (MohammadRezaei and Faraji, 2019). However, "escape" clauses are usually included in the contract allowing the auditor to perform additional work and receive overtime payments in an unobservable situation, including the going concern issues or other factors affecting the audit risk (Palmrose, 1987: Hassanzadeh Baradaran et al., 2015). In other words, one of the essential factor in determining the audit fees of current year is the audit fees of last year, not the actual audit hours (effort) of current year. In addition, determining the audit fee before starting of the audit project raises the question of whether the current year's fee is more in line with the current characteristics of the client firm or with the last year's characteristics of the client. It is important to note that what information the auditor has about the client when determining the fee? Clearly, when the audit fee is determined, the financial statements of the client firm is not available for current year. The auditor has more access to the information of the last year's audited financial statements and the last year's audit report. Finally, we used the ‘ bundle pricing strategy’ in marketing (loyd, 2016) to predict the possible relationship between the role of mid-term audit fees and end-of-period audit fees. Consistent with the bundle pricing view, it can be argued that auditors may consider the mid-term and end-of-term fees as a single bundle pricing to reap the benefits. Method: 1029 firm-year observations were collected from companies listed on Tehran Stock Exchange for seven years, from 2011 to 2017. Two regression models are estimated using ordinary least squares and generalized method of moments to examine research hypotheses. Findings: The findings reveal that the audit fee of the last year is used as an essential basis for determining the audit fee of the current year. This is the case, because in Iran the audit fee is determined before starting audit project. Such a finding is also supported by both the ordinary least squares model and the generalized method of moments. In addition, the findings show that the current year's audit fee is associated with some characteristics of the client firm and the audit project in last year. Despite determining the audit fee prior to the audit project starting and the availability of the client characteristics and the audit project of the last year at the time of determining the current year’ s fee, after the completing the audit project of current year, the auditors are able to adjust their audit fee by amending the contract. The results also showed that the interim audit fee is negatively correlated with the end-of-term audit fee. Such a finding provides very original evidence consistent with the bundle pricing perspective. Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that the factors affecting the audit fee in the Iranian audit market are different from what prior research were documented at the international era. Such evidence suggests that both legislators and researchers should consider the environmental factors in legislation and audit fee studies. In addition, it is suggested that small audit firms and the audit firms without specific guidelines for determining audit fees use the model presented in this study because only last year's fee is not the basis in determining the current year's audit fee. In addition, since last year's fee affects the current year's audit fee, it is suggested that audit fee contracts be set flexibly between the audit firm and the client. Finally, given that the importance of bundling pricing approach in a competitive audit market, it is suggested that audit firms consider mid-term and end-of-term fees as a bundle. In this case, the auditors can consider a discount for each of the mid-term or end-of-term fees, depending on the circumstances, in order to obtain the client's consent and keep the job.

Objective: The present research aı ms to study the effect of using the dı alectı cal metaphor on the audı tors’ maturı ty process of negotı atı on. In the other words, it seeks to evaluate the effect of the dialectical metaphor usage on the auditors’ negotiation effectiveness by a less concerned procedure which is a clear comprehension of the existing gap among the features according to the philosophical approaches. It should be noted that weakness and insufficient capacity of the standards and regulations to connect the auditors’ inner features with the applicable facts result in the issue that many of philosophical aspects and individual insights are less covered by the legal regulations. Of course, as a professional basis among the other ones, the auditors’ negotiation is not accounted as an exception, so this research tries to study the effect level of the dialectical metaphor usage on the effectiveness of the auditors’ negotiation. Method: In terms of type and nature of the discussing problem and the research goals, the present research is practical. According to the gathering method of the descriptive information, it is correlative and scaling. Based on that, three scales of the professional morality, mutual trust, and social norms were evaluated based on 12 questions in the form of five-option scales questionnaire of Likert. To test the assumptions and the model fit, the minimum square squares analysis was used. Findings: For the statistical tests and model fit, PLS the minimum square squares analysis was used. In this method, reliability and validity of the model variables were examined based on the minimum square squares method, at first. In the following step, the assumptions were tested by the model fit. In this part, first, the findings of the demographic and descriptive statistics, the inferential statistics were given in the following. Based on the research findings, the highest average level is related to the professional morality variable indicating that keeping the personal identity in the form of moralization in negotiation can lead to the negotiation effectiveness increase between the auditor and the employer. Also, it is shown that the highest deviance variable is related to the auditor ’ s mutual trust variable indicating that the auditors’ opinions about the reliability in negotiation are totally different and discursive. Conclusion: According to the results of the research assumptions, it is found that the dialectical metaphor usage has a positive effect on the auditors’ negotiation effectiveness. Analyzing the result proved that the dialectical metaphor which is the personal approaches showing the intellectual philosophy and personal insights may guide the person to prevent the misleading ideas during negotiation in order to resolve the challenges and arguments associated with auditing in the financial functions based on a purposeful and useful interaction with the other side of negotiation. In fact, in any society, improving the quality of the financial reporting is a symbol of trust raise to the economic enterprises in order to increase the decision making power of the beneficiary which requires the desirable actions of the auditors in the process of increasing clarity of the financial statements. One of the disputable subjects in this field is making contract between the auditors as the assessors of the firm’ s financial functions that the effectiveness of the negotiations will be increased when they are based on the coherent social standards and norms (Halindi, Kent, MC Namara, 2011). During any negotiation, literature and behavior as well as usage of metaphor result in the effectiveness increase so; the arguments between the auditor and the employer will be decreased accompanied with decreasing in the auditing risk and improving dynamism of the finance clarities, consequently (Salterio and Lens, 2016). Since the aim of the present research is the effect of the dialectical metaphor usage on the auditors’ maturity process of negotiation, the assumption test results indicated that the usage of the dialectical metaphor has a positive effect on the effectiveness of the auditors’ negotiation. Analyzing the results suggested that the dialectical metaphor which is in fact, the personal approaches expressing the intellectual philosophy and personal insights may guide the person to prevent the misleading ideas during negotiation in order to resolve the challenges and arguments associated with auditing in the financial functions based on a purposeful and useful interaction with the other side of negotiation. During the interaction with the employers, it also helps the person to use an effective literature based on the standards and professional approaches in giving the professional opinions. The literature with roots in the auditor’ s comprehension of society, profession, beneficiaries. . . that improves the level of effectiveness considerably. It should be noted that negotiation is a mutual process in which the benefits (tangible and intangible) of both sides should be acquired. The obtained result is correlated with the researches of Chamiliki (2014), Honglin et al (2011), and Kulest and Stewart (2019).

Objective: The use of various sciences with the aim of solving the problems facing financial researchers in recent years as an essential need, given the issues and problems caused by the psychological and social destructive effects of capital market fluctuations, is felt more than ever. In this regard, the present study examines the impact of financial socialization on financial satisfaction with the mediating role of financial dogmatism, which to investigate the mediating effect, four main objectives are: 1-The impact of financial socialization on financial satisfaction 2-Financial socialization on financial dogmatism 3-The effect of financial dogmatism on financial satisfaction and 4-Explaining the effect of financial dogmatism on the relationship between financial socialization and financial satisfaction were examined. Method: In this regard, 450 questionnaires were distributed among investors in the Tehran Stock Exchange. Out of 430 collected items, 398 questionnaires were accepted and structural equation modeling (SEM) and Amos software version 26 were used to analyze the data. The maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) method has also been used to predict the amount of unknown parameters. Results: The results indicate that financial socialization has a positive and significant effect on financial satisfaction and a negative and significant effect on financial dogmatism. Also, financial dogmatism has a negative and significant effect on financial satisfaction. In general, the results show that in the relationship between financial socialization and financial satisfaction, financial dogmatism has a mediating role, and since financial socialization, in the absence of financial dogmaism, directly affects financial satisfaction, in this relationship, a partial mediating role Plays. Conclusion: Given the positive impact of financial socialization, one of the dimensions of which is social media networks on financial satisfaction, it is appropriate for companies to achieve the goals of financial reporting, voluntary disclosure of information and signaling that reduces risk and information symmetry., To inform through new methods such as social networks and add them to previous reporting methods. Also, by increasing measures for financial socialization, such as the development of social networks, it is possible to reduce the financial dogma of investors and increase their trust, which is considered an obstacle to investment. Therefore, by increasing the volume of investment in the capital market, while reducing the risks of entering the market and its prosperity, we will see an increase in the financial satisfaction of investors and their greater confidence. In addition, by increasing the financial satisfaction of individuals, it will increase the amount of investment.

Objective: Previous research on earnings management has focused mostly on accruals earnings management methods and real earnings management. Recently, a third tool called classification shifting for earnings management has been considered. Classification shifting occurs when management intentionally misclassifies parts of recurring operational expenses as incomedecreasing special items (McVay, 2006). This can inflate core earnings; for example, by hiding parts of the recurring administrative expenses among none operational items. Income Shifting within the income statement does not change bottom-line income but does increase perceived core earnings, an alternative performance measure often emphasized by financial analysts and investors. results of previous studies like McVay (2006) provide evidence of higher levels of classification shifting when management has incentives to act opportunistically to meet or beat consensus analysts' earnings forecasts. Different studies (MacVay, 2006; Saghafi and Jamalian, 2018) documented evidence of using classification shifting as a method of earnings management by the managers in different markets. Some other studies report that a strong investor protection environment and strong internal corporate governance tend to mitigate classification shifting (Behn, Gotti, Herrmann, & Kang, 2013; Zlata & Roberts, 2016). Also, the role of ownership structure, which is argued to have a significant impact on earnings management, should not be neglected. The value of a strong board and audit committee arises, in part, because they constitute a form of monitoring, curbing opportunistic managerial behavior, and therefore reducing information risk (Zlata & Roberts, 2016). Although there is general agreement that strong boards and audit committees curb accrual-based earnings management. In addition, due to the importance of the supervisory role of the board of directors in the company and its impact on the efficiency of supervisory mechanisms in the present study, some characteristics of the board of directors like board size and proportion of independent directors are also considered. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of board characteristics on the relationship between ownership structure and classification shifting. This study investigated the role of board size and independence in the relationship between ownership structure and classification shifting. Method: The present sample of the present study includes 105 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange from the period 2016 to 2020. In order to test the research hypotheses, multiple regression analyses have been used. Based on theoretical foundations these hypotheses were developed and tested: H1: there is a relationship between intuitional ownership and classification shifting. H2: there is a relationship between state ownership and classification shifting. H3: board size has a significant effect on the strength of the relationship between intuitional ownership and classification shifting. H4: proportion of independent directors has a significant effect on the strength of the relationship between intuitional ownership and classification shifting. H5: board size has a significant effect on the strength of the relationship between state ownership and classification shifting. H6: proportion of independent directors has a significant effect on the strength of the relationship between state ownership and classification shifting. In order to measure classification shifting, residuals from the model developed by McVay (2006) were used. This model measures classification shifting between core expenses (cost of goods sold and selling, general, and administrative expenses) and special items. Results: The results show that there is a negative and significant relationship between institutional shareholders and classification shifting and the size of the board strengthens this relationship. But the effect of the proportion of independent directors on the relationship was not significant. There is also a positive and significant relationship between state ownership and classification shifting. While the proportion of independent directors weakens this relationship, the size of the board of directors does not affect the relationship. Conclusion: The results of this study show that the ownership structure of companies affects the rate of application classification shifting as a method of earnings management. Different kinds of ownership structures can change manager motivations to apply classification shifting. Since institutional ownership provides professional monitoring and control of manager behavior, it has been proven to be an effective corporate governance mechanism. In line with this theoretical foundation, we find a negative relationship between institutional shareholders and classification shifting. On the other side, a positive relationship between state ownership and classification shifting was expected as a result of poor monitoring mechanisms applied by the states to control managers’ behavior. Different aspects of corporate governance such as the board size and independence also can affect these relationships. The findings of the present study should be considered in the decisions of investors and stakeholders of the company because it can provide new evidence on how to use the change in classification as a new way of earnings management. This finding also can be used by auditors for audit risk assessment and audit planning. Since the evaluation of the classification shifting as a method of earnings management is widely ignored by researchers, there are many possible avenues for future research. The effect of other mechanisms of corporate governance on the classification shifting can be studied and on the other hand effect of classification shifting on the value relevance of financial statements the and reaction of investors to financial statements can be investigated.

Objective: One of the most important decisions managers should take and one of the crucial components of every business unit operation is financing. Managers have the control over choosing the resource of financing and compared with external financing, internal financing is much easier for them. Choosing the optimal financing policy by managers plays an important role in risk and wealth creation for shareholders. Manager’ s over confidence is an important behavioual characteristic that affect the way managers invest, finance and decide on dividend policies. Managers prefer internal financing over external financing because they have more control on internal resources and then, when this is combined with risk-taking behavior of over confident managers they can affect the investment efficiency since they may stray from the optimal level of investment. On the other hand, if managers feel that corporate governance mechanisms constraint them or they have insufficient internal resources for investing, they may be reluctant to invest. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between management over-confidence, internal financing and investment efficiency. Method: This is an applied reseach and it is a quasi-emprical research and its methodology is post-event research. This research investigates the real data of firms listed on Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) and because of that its results are generalizable to the research population. In this research we have used systematic elimination method to chose the research sample. In order to test the research hypothesis, time priod of 2012 to 2018 were chosen and the multivariate regression model by combined data method was used obtain the results. Data from 188 firms were analyzed and we used Microsoft Excel and Eviews version 9 to analyze the data and extract research results. Results: The results of testing research hypotheses show that there is a negative significant relationship between internal financing and investment efficiency. It can be said that the benefits of internal financing has decreased the efficiency of firms’ investment, an example of this benefits is the availability of internal resources. This availability cause managers to violate the optimum level of investment (over-invest or under-invest in projects). Also, there is a negative relationship between internal financing and over-investment and a positive relation between internal financing and under-investment. Putting into another words, in firms with under-investment, the level of internal financing is higher and the amount of external resources for financing decreases. So, the internal financing is one of the reasons we have underinvestment in firms. In addition, taking together the effects of management over confidence and internal financing, investment efficiency decreases. This results are consistent with research theoretical literature. In contrast to internal financing, external financing creates some limitations for managers and because of that managers are reluctant to finance through external resources. So, this is why the revel of investment strays form its optimum level. This results are in line with He et al (2019), Taghizade Khanqah & Badavar Nahandi (2020) and Faraji et al (2019). Conclusion: Internal financing is a factor that affect under-investment positively. So, based on managers control over internal resources and their concern about valuation of their firm by market, it is evident that they prefer to face minimally with control mechanisms and external regulation. In addition, it can be said that, it is not always for the best interest of firm and its shareholders to have a high degree of internal financing. Therefore stockholders should consider this in their analysis. Putting constraints on the level of internal financing (based on its effect on the level of investment by managers) by stake holders can affect the return of firm considerably. Also, the relationship between use of internal financing and the level of investment by managers and their over-confidence may be a two-way relationship. With an increase in the use of internal financing and the decreasion of over-investment and increasion of under-investment, the predicted income of projects and the firm in total may be decreased, that in this case the over-confidence of managers will in turn decrease again.

Objective: Independent auditors ensure the transparency of corporate information through accreditation of financial statements and other information under review. Recent financial scandals around the world, from Atron and WorldCom in the United States to Parliament in Europe, have raised concerns about the reliability of financial statements. While the main responsibility for preparing financial statements rests with the company's management, these events are generally referred to as audit failures. In fact, the general perception is that the reason for such events is the lack of independence and poor quality of auditing. Following these events, legislators and developers of accounting standards sought to enact legislation to improve the independence of auditors and the quality of auditing. One of the main concerns of the auditing profession is auditor independence and the gradual decline of auditor independence is a serious threat. The auditor's long relationship with the client creates a level of closeness between the two that makes it very difficult for the auditor to perform the audit work in a way that maintains an appropriate level of professional skepticism and does not compromise his or her independence. . In fact, proponents of auditor change believe that in the event of a forced turnaround, auditors will be in a position to resist the pressures and demands of managers and to make more impartial judgments. The auditor's long presence with an client creates a tendency to maintain the client's management's point of view, a situation that undermines his or her independence and impartiality. In addition, the close proximity of the two causes the auditors' independence to be compromised as the auditing firm's staff is more likely to be hired by the client. Mandatory rotation of auditing firms is one of the regulations that have been enacted to maintain the independence and improve the quality of auditing. But anagement actions lead to professional skepticism in auditors and perception of turnover risk in auditors, which can affect the quality of their audits. Given the importance of the issue of auditing professional skepticism, this study examines the relationship between mandatory rotation of auditing firms and the characteristics of auditing professional skepticism. Methods: For this purpose, the effect of the mandatory rotation of the audit firms on the six audit traits of the auditor's professional skepticism, based on Hurtt et al., (2013) research, (questioning mind, suspension of judgment, Search for knowledge, interpersonal understanding, self-esteem, and autonomy) are considered. In this research, a questionnaire was distributed among 119 auditors of the audit organization and audit institutions of the member of the official accountant community of Iran, including all partners, managers and supervisors of the audit, In order to analyze the research hypotheses, structural equation modeling was used with Smart PLS software. Results: According to the empirical findings, the auditor's mandatory rotation of the audit firms has a positive and significant effect on the six characteristics of auditor's professional skepticism (questioning mind, suspension of judgment, Search for knowledge, interpersonal understanding, self-esteem, and autonomy). Of the six components of the auditor's skepticism, the component of knowledge search is further influenced by the mandatory rotation of the audit firms. Conclusion: In order to reduce the effect of an increase in the auditor's period auditor's professional skepticism should increase to improve the quality of the audit and the reliability of financial reports. This means that those audit firms that took advantage of auditors with a stronger view of professional skepticism are more capable of issuing audit reports and detecting significant deviations, and improving their audit quality. It is argued that in the event of a forced rotation of audit firms, auditors will be in a position to resist the pressures and demands of managers and to make objective and impartial judgments. The auditor's long-term presence with an client creates a desire to maintain and respect the client's management views; A situation that undermines the independence and skepticism of his profession. Also, this long-term period can create a series of emotional relationships to the extent that it creates a sense of loyalty in the auditors and it is possible that it will affect his judgment and in case of long-term relationship between the auditor and the owner their ability to judge whether it is appropriate or not. Accounting and reporting practices are declining. As a result, this relationship reduces the quality of the audit; The results therefore suggest that the long-term relationship between the auditor and the client may limit the professional skepticism and ultimately the auditor's judgment. Therefore, by reducing the duration of this relationship or in other words, increasing the mandatory turnover of auditing firms can lead to the application of more knowledge and skepticism of the auditing profession. The results also showed that among the six components of auditor professional skepticism, the search component for gaining more knowledge is affected by the forced rotation of auditing firms. It seems that with the increase of mandatory rotation of auditing firms, the auditor's attention to the discovery of evidence will increase. In other words, the auditor clarifies the situation in order to obtain evidence by examining important aspects of fraud and the acquisition of knowledge; That auditing firms should pay special attention to this component of professional skepticism compared to other components. This result is in line with the results of research such as Popova (2006). According to the research results, investors are advised to pay attention to information about the auditor rotation by companies when deciding to invest, because auditor rotation by companies may contain messages to investors that The quality of the audit report. And considering that among the characteristics of the auditor's professional skepticism, the knowledge search feature has a significant relationship with the rotation of the audit firm; It is suggested that this feature of auditors be given more consideration. Also, considering the validity and reliability of the Hurt questionnaire (2013), it is recommended to the mentioned auditing firms to use this questionnaire in selecting auditors to measure their skeptical characteristics.